Review Summary

Amélie (Audrey Tautou) works as a waitress in Paris and tinkers in the lives of her friends. When she falls in love with Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz), she can't be direct and let him know how she feels. Instead, she pulls him into an elaborate courtship dance that turns life in Paris into a game of Twister with a treasure hunt added to the mix. Nino trails after Amélie, still the mystery woman to him, as she leaves clues about herself everywhere. By the climax, the movie segues into a rumination on loss and the perils of being too playful. The film's original French title was "Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain" and the director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, deflates the self-mocking pomposity of the title by the last third of the movie. Yet there is no denying that "Amélie" is, to paraphrase its title, fabulous. – Elvis Mitchell